Google Maps v9.70 Enables Adding and Removing Visited Places and More

Google Maps has a new beta out on some devices. There’s not much of a UI change, but we can expect. There’s more from the home screen shortcuts, showtimes with ticket sales, detail fields for food photos, and way more.

Add and Remove Places Custom Search and Your Directions

To look back through places you’ve been, you need to go through the ‘Your places’ screen with the ‘Visited’ tab which lists of all the places Google Maps has detected you to have stayed at for more than a few minutes. If the wrong location was identified, it could be corrected only to other nearby places. Now, If you open the detail page for a place Google Maps doesn’t think you’ve been, the menu will now contain an action to add it to your visited places. After which, a new “you have visited this place” line will appear just above the address. Tapping to expand the line says that the entry is only visible to you and includes buttons to see it in your list of visited places or to remove it.

The ‘Remove’ button allows you to remove all recorded visits to a place from your timeline. Now it’s possible to completely eradicate a place from the timeline with just a few taps. This doesn’t eliminate the path that you’ve traveled from your timeline history and just unlinks that location.

With Custom Search, you’ll be able to define a search category or define your own keywords, just like you would with the search box. When you hit the shortcut, it will immediately perform that search based on your current location, or based on the area you’re viewing. For now, there will be a limit of four custom searches.

The feature is called “Your directions” could be a tool for saving the parameters of a trip that can be restored later. You can also create shortcuts for a trip which can be edited, renamed, or deleted. It’ll come in handy if you’ve pre-planned a trip and don’t want to go through the process again.

More Details about Food Photos, Movie Tickets and Transit instructions

Maps will allow users to add details about the photos of food and drinks they’ve submitted and ask for the name of the item, its price, and if they would recommend it to others. It looks like there will also be a search function for the name of the item.

You might also be able to snag a hotel reservation from within the Maps app. It is unclear whether Google will be selling the tickets directly, but it could very well be via a third-party booking site integrated with the app.

The update also brings several new features for people who use public transportation. It instructs users to walk a certain distance and also informs them of about approximately how much time they’ll be waiting to get onto a train, bus, or some other form of transport. Another notable feature is that it communicates about how much time a user has for detours. So, the app will let you know if there’s a waiting period at the end of your walk so you can get some errands done.

These features are still in the beta, so it’ll be some time before they’re rolled out as an update. One key feature that we think is missing is speed limit indicators. What would you like to see integrated into Google Maps? Let us know in the comments below.